Home Bargains store front

Home Bargains has told staff they can have an extra day off at Christmas with the announcement that stores will remain closed on Boxing Day.

The discount chain will be shut on one of the busiest shopping days of the year as a “thank you” to its 23,000 employees.

Home Bargains informed customers and staff in a tweet which said: ‘To all our staff, thank you for your hard work this year. We will be closing all our stores on Boxing Day to give you the day off. We hope you enjoy the Christmas holiday. To our customers, all of our stores will be closed on Boxing Day this year to give our hard-working staff some extra time off. They will reopen the day after Boxing Day. Thank you for understanding.’

“Christmas is a significant period in the retail calendar, and with staff across the business spending months building up to the occasion every year, we wanted to give them an opportunity to relax and truly enjoy the break with their loved ones,” said Home Bargains founder and MD Tom Morris.

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“Home Bargains is a family-run business and we know the importance of being with loved ones at Christmas time. We also appreciate that our staff work tirelessly to keep over 500 of our stores running like clockwork, so giving everyone Boxing Day off is our way of saying thank you for their hard work and commitment. We look forward to welcoming shoppers back through our doors on Thursday 27 December.”

Last month Home Bargains reported double-digit growth for the second year in a row, with sales up 14.6% to £2.1bn in the year to 30 June and pre-tax profits up 20.5% to £202.7m.